3IG 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the fruit has set. At any cost of labour an effort should be made, 

 at that stage of growth, either to give a thorough watering with 

 liquid manure, or, lacking that, sufficient clear water over the 

 newly applied mulching as will reach every root of the trees. 

 The effect on the swelling fruit is magical. The same process 

 should be repeated twice afterwards, namely, when it is half- 

 grown, and again when the final swelling commences. The 

 manurial mulching of trees on walls should be renewed twice a 

 year ; my own practice is to do the work any time between now 

 and December, and the mode of operation is to lightly rake off 

 the old mulching, give a slight dressing of fresh loam, crushed 

 bones, and wood ashes, and over this the mulching ; this is the 

 winter dressing not only of Pears, but of all our fruit trees on 

 walls. I ought, perhaps, to add that the mulching extends to a 

 distance of four feet from the walls. The second application is 

 not so generally necessary, except for Pears, and these we never 

 fail to re-mulch some time during the months of March or April. 

 I have been thus particular to describe what I consider the best 

 mode of manuring. It does not follow, however, that all trees 

 need it — one's own judgment must decide that point— nor does it 

 follow that there are not other excellent modes of applying stimu- 

 lants. We have a number of trees that are neither mulched nor 

 have manure directly applied to them, but being planted at the 

 back of a Rose border that biennially is trenched deeply and 

 manured freely a large proportion of roots dispute the right of 

 the Roses to a monopoly of the manure, and, so long as they con- 

 tinue to produce fine fruit in quantity, it is hardly worth while to 

 take notice of the trespass. 



Aspects, and Forms of Training. — There are varieties of 

 Pears that do well in any aspect, east, west, north, or south ; 

 but south, south-west, and west are undoubtedly the aspects 

 best suited to Pears in general. I do not now refer to aspects of 

 walls, but to the garden as a whole. In a garden with a slope 

 to any of the quarters of the compass here mentioned Pears may 

 be planted in any part of it with the best results. But, with my 

 present notions in regard to the importance of every tree having 

 its own plot of ground to itself, I should, of course, advise the 

 setting apart of the warmest and most sheltered quarters in the 

 garden, having a south or west aspect, for Pear cultivation ; and 

 the distance from tree to tree must necessarily be decided by the 



